


I Came to Find an Answer

by FireflyPie



Series: Memories of Impyria [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Introspection, No Plot/Plotless, Short, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 04:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29869467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflyPie/pseuds/FireflyPie
Summary: A moment's respite in the snow.
Series: Memories of Impyria [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2196009





	I Came to Find an Answer

“My Lord Ampire.”

Logan stiffly turned around, his dark uniform and blood-hued hair a stark mar against the fields of snow that spread out beneath them. His iron badge and gold-patterned gloves glinted in the cold, muted light, causing the trembling messenger to tremble even more. Whether it was from the cold or fear Logan knew not - not that it mattered.

“Speak,” he breathed, a puff of icy mist from his mouth.

“Th-the… um, I bring a missive from Her Majesty, the E-Empress,” he managed to say through chattering teeth. Following this, he clumsily drew an exquisite scroll from within his rucksack and presented it to Logan.

Logan warily took it from the messenger, as if the elegant vellum and crimson ribbon would burst into flames at any moment... Crimson. A decree of the highest priority, meant only for the eyes of the Empress’s most elite servants.

“M-my Lord Ampire… if I may b-be so insolent…” Here the cowed messenger dared to glance up at Logan’s face, as if to gauge whether he had permission to go on, but Logan only met his supplication with a frosty stare.

The messenger coughed and continued in a quieter voice: “Snowfalls h-have been heavy these p-past few weeks o-of travel… th-the soldiers, your soldiers, have been having tr-trouble lighting fires to ward off the cold, especially at night - perhaps you could, if it pleases you, use your… abilities to provide assistance?”

Logan turned around to face the fields of snow again, his black cloak to the messenger’s gaze. Gently, with gold-patterned fingers, he slipped the ribbon off and unfurled the missive. A messenger could not be allowed to read a crimson message. Fiery, ornate patterns ran up and down the sides of the page in blood red…

“My Lord!”

The sharply curving writing, in burgundy ink, was almost impossible to read. The Empress proclaimed that it was so that unimportant people couldn’t read Her messages, but Logan privately suspected it was because She’d had so little time to learn how to write - or perhaps She never paid attention to Her tutors (that was probably the case, although he’d be executed for saying such a blasphemous thing). 

“P-please… I saw the fr-frostbite with my o-own eyes… of course my Lord would not have such common problems, but men work b-best when they’re healthy in body a-as well as in mind…”

As Logan read the missive, he closed his eyes. It had started to snow again, the thick flakes of crystals falling against the page. Dark red against bright white… that is what the queen decreed.

“My Lord Ampire!” the messenger called, reminding him. “This can’t - “

“I will only act if the queen commands it,” he intoned quietly. “Be silent and go on your way.”

The messenger stared, dumbfounded, at Logan for a heartbeat. Logan could see something very familiar to him these days in the boy’s eyes: shock, fear, hatred. “If my Lord Ampire says it, then it must be so,” he muttered. Then the boy wrenched his cap over his eyes and finally slunk away.

Logan let his arms fall to his sides, letting out a long, slow sigh. His misty breath swirled around his eyes, and he examined the beautiful, snowy field once more. A cluster of dark brown buildings on the horizon and a few wisps of smoke curling up in the distance made it clear - there it was, defenseless.

Then he clutched the vellum so tight it hurt his knuckles, burning it to ashes with the magic flowing through his blood. And he marched onwards, through the snow.


End file.
